Donor Management System
Implemented a donor management system for a community foundation, enabling better relationship tracking and more effective fundraising campaigns.
Client
Sheffield Community Foundation
Role
CRM Consultant
Duration
2 months
Tools
Zoho CRM, Mailchimp, Zapier, Google Sheets
Overview
Sheffield Community Foundation was tracking donors in spreadsheets, which meant they had no real visibility into giving patterns, lapsed donors, or campaign effectiveness. They needed a proper donor management system but didn't have the budget for enterprise non-profit software.
Constraints
Time
Two months to implement before the autumn fundraising season
Budget
Charity budget requiring free or low-cost tools
Team
Two part-time fundraising staff and several volunteers
Platform
Needed to integrate with existing Mailchimp for email campaigns
Approach
Selected Zoho CRM for its free tier and non-profit pricing, customising it for donor relationship management rather than sales.
Built custom modules for tracking donations, pledges, and volunteer hours, with relationships linking individuals to their giving history.
Created automated workflows for acknowledgment emails, renewal reminders, and lapsed donor re-engagement sequences.
Integrated with Mailchimp so campaign results automatically updated donor records.
Outcome
- Donor retention rate improved from 45% to 62% in first year
- Average gift size increased by 23%
- Time spent on donor admin reduced by 10 hours per week
- Lapsed donor campaign recovered £12,000
A proper donor management system transformed their fundraising from reactive to proactive. They now know who their donors are and can cultivate relationships properly.
Reflection
What worked
- Zoho's customisation options meant we could build a proper donor system without enterprise costs
- Automating acknowledgments immediately freed up staff time
- Mailchimp integration kept email marketing connected to relationship data
What didn't
- Initial volunteer adoption was slower than staff adoption
- Some historical giving data was incomplete and required manual research
What I would do differently
Would spend more time on volunteer training. They interact with donors regularly but weren't using the system to log those interactions initially.